what can we do for you? >> and now, "bbc world news america." >> this is "bbc world news america" reporting from washington. u.s. stocks have their best day in over a year after a last minute deal pulled america back from the fiscal clift. 60,000 people have died in the civil war and the u.n. blames the outside world for failing to stop this violence. the ghost town of fukushima. we speak to the forgotten victims of japan's nuclear disaster including those who risked all to help.

welcome to world news america. financial markets around the world have a good start to the new year after american politicians come up with a last- minute deal to avoid falling back into recession. the tortures nature of the political negotiations suggest washington is going to struggle over future economic decisions. today's excitement might be short-lived. >> smiles of relief on wall street today as the new york stock exchange reopens. relief as a last-minute deal averted a looming economic crisis. markets around the world were cheered by the news. in asia, shares jumped and the pattern was repeated across europe. this was the moment of truth late last night, the first and new year's day vote in congress since the korean war 60 years ago. a vote on a compromise agreement that neither party

loves. >> virtually no 1 believes that what we have before us tonight is a long-term solution. >> it reminds me of the jokes were used to have, where someone stops hitting you in the head with a hammer and you're supposed to say thank you so much for the relief. >> in the end, house democrats were joined by enough republicans for the agreement to become law. as for the president to deliver on a campaign pledge, that the rich would pay more to help reduce the deficit. >> i will sign a law that raises taxes on the wealthiest 2% of americans wall preventing a middle-class tax hike for -- while preventing a middle-class tax hike. >> they have agreed that the wealthiest americans will pay more income tax. individuals earning more than $400,000 a year deep spending cuts of more than $100 billion have been delayed for two months which means there will be

another round of haggling at the beginning of march. the u.s. government will hit what is known as the debt ceiling, the limit for borrowing and only congress can raise it. for americans braving the january chill, frustration with politicians and resignation that they will soon have to go through all over again. >> i think it is ridiculous, i think the congress should be doing their job, not waiting until the last minute. >> it is not over with yet. they have another couple of months to debate things. once they figure it out, they will come to a decision which we hope will be the best interest of the country. >> this extraordinary new year's drama has played out as barack obama prefers for his second term. a second term in which you would like to achieve big things on immigration reform, climate change, and gun control. it is clear with a bitterly divided congress come none of it will come easily.

>> for more reaction from capitol hill i spoke a short time ago with republican congresswoman marcia blackburn of tennessee and 1 of her colleagues that voted against the bill. the stocks have had their best day in over a year. that might have been a different picture if the majority of your colleagues voted against this deal. congresswoman, is that something that you were prepared to do, to take a vote to send america back into recession? >> i have already voted to extend all the tax cuts for everyone. what i did not like about the bill once we got it and were able to read it was the amount of spending and the amount that it will add to the debts. also to our annual deficit. this is 1 of those bills that more people look into it and dig into it, the less happy they

will be with it. >> you also voted against this bill but i put the same question to you. were you prepared for the consequences of what might have happened if your colleagues had voted as you did and voted against this bill? "i figured once it was passed the stock market would go up. i was a stockbroker for 10 years. we which year when unemployment would go up, that would mean that unemployment was cheap. the fact that the stock market is up sometimes is a reflection of a strong economy. not always. the problem that i had with this bill is that it takes 3.9 trillion dollars of revenue off the table and it sets up 3 fiscal cliffs over the next few months. the only issues that we will be discussing is what to cut and how deeply to cut it. i actually believe that if the

federal government can play a constructive role in society, we have an investment deficit in terms of education and skills training and research and innovation. we will not have the resources to be able to provide those kinds of services to the american public let alone to our children's future. >> when all the things that he mentioned that america needs to do not just in the short term, with these two new hurdles, but in the longer term, immigration, energy, all of the big things. washington cannot get anything done if we have had this kind of an absurd fight over this 1 deal. >> 1 of the things you will notice is that the house passed a bill on a bipartisan basis and sent them to the senate. the senate did not take those bills up. the tax bill which came back to us yesterday was a great example of that. we passed that bill with

bipartisan support on august 1st. it has been sitting there and we never have the courage to take it out. all of these issues that you are talking about, things that deal with education. the pass this in the house. i think there is plenty of frustration with the u.s. senate. >> the perception around the world is that america has become ungovernable. it cannot get small things done without a fight. >> well, sometimes we do have a difference of opinion and we do have these fights that if you will our discussions and having a democracy can be messy business at times. lawmaking can be messy. we have a time where we have those on both sides, the

political spectrum, those in the middle and finding that common ground is more difficult because our fiscal house is in order. >> what do you think the chances are that america can tackle the things it needs to do not only in terms of the fiscal challenges but the biggest challenges that it faces over the next few years? >> well, i am frustrated. it seems as though the congress is dysfunctional. that we arek tackling the big issues. at 14% of gdp, we cannot be a globally competitive economy and we cannot invest in the human infrastructure to help lead the world. the public perception is

accurate. the only thing congress can do it consistently is nothing. that is why the leverage that we wanted with the so-called fiscal cliff, if we had done nothing, there would have been some real catastrophe. >> i'm afraid we have to leave it there. thank you for joining me. newnew figures suggest the civil war and syria is deadlier than believed. according to the u.n., more than 60,000 people have been killed. the u.n. called the figure truly shocking and said it represented a failure by the outside world to stop the violence. today, opposition activists said that dozens more people were killed by an air strike in damascus. our middle east editor reports. >> this a video came from anti- regime activists in syria. they say it shows the aftermath

of a government air strike on a petrol station in the suburbs of damascus. estimates of the dead and this attack, some reports say they included armed rebels, run as high as 50. it is as hard as ever to get accurate information out of syria but almost no foreign observers are in the country and big parts of the country are inaccessible. but now the u.n. human rights office said that they have an accurate total of the dead. it is startlingly bigger than previous estimates. the have an outside specialist to go through casualty lists compiled. they have come out with a list of 59,006 had a 48 dead until november. fully identified by photos and family names. -- they have come out with a list of 59,648. most estimates say that 40,000-

45,000 have died. the destruction and death could have been avoided if president assad's regime had not ruthlessly suppressed it was started as a peaceful protest. now it is a civil war and the u.n. had harsh words for the way the world has responded. >> we have failed, collectively, internationally, whether you are talking about the u.n. or individual governments or neighboring countries, we have all failed as this conflict has gone spiraling down the hill. the number of casualties appears to have gone up between the summer of 2011 and the summer of 2012. 5 times as many people being killed. >> the diplomacy is no match for the logic. in damascus, we saw on these are rebel fighters preparing for a long war sending increasingly

dangerous waves of instability out into the world's most volatile regions. >> jeremy joins me now from london. we have known that the fighting is terrible and syria. what we did not know is how many people have been killed there. >> this latest report has raised the roll call of the dead. the question is will this change anything in terms of the international failure to deal with the war in syria. i don't know if it will quite frankly. nobody knew that things were bad and syria and now we know that they might be more bad than we thought they were. the same issue is to stopping them responding which will still be there. >> you were there just at the end of last year, did you get any sense that the president is losing the political and

military battle there and it might come to an end? >> i think that there are times when the opposition, they are guilty of some wishful thinking about the strength of the assad regime. i think that it is certainly growing in 1 direction. the assad regime is being weakened. i don't think that there are signs that that is translated into the imminent fall of the regime. the country is quite split and there are people in the country who still support president assad and he still has people who are prepared to die for him. there is the whole issue of the fact that the security council is divided about what happens next. we're not getting any outside pressure from outside. sadly, this will continue and in this new year will probably get much worse.

>> those numbers keep rising. thank you. 7 charity workers were buried in pakistan today. they had been shot to death in a van on their way home from teaching girls and distributing vaccines. this is the latest in a string of attacks on people working in a polio vaccination scheme or educating girls. both activities are posed by the pakistani taliban. >> there has been no threats, no warnings of the barbarity that was to come here. this community center gave girls of the area and education and it is where parents brought their children for vaccinations. both are crimes in the eyes of the pakistani taliban who see them as serving a western agenda. the staff had just finished for the day and were heading home along this road when they were

ambushed by militants. the 5 teachers were women in the early 20's and two health workers were traveling in this van. gunmen stopped them and camera decide and pulled open this door and then shot all 7 at close range. their handbags and notebooks are now bloodstained and is the line from the vehicle. 1 passenger did survive, a 4- year-old who had been in the van with his mother. he watched her being shot and was found screaming beside the van. he does not understand, says his father. he just cannot breed when i look at him and his brother and sister. i am paralyzed and thinking how they will be affected by what has happened to their mother. he said that his wife told him that life and death were in god's hands and the work that she did was too important to stop. today, she was buried and the

charity has stopped its teaching and its health work. show hiss afraid to face, fearing for his own life. -- its boss afraid to show his face. >> this is what the terrorist wanted, this was the only outlet for girls wanting job. now they're too scared and there is nothing. >> while pakistan possible is continue to look powerless against the militants, it is women aid workers that of the ones left most hon. on the front lines. -- governmenttan's continues to the powerless against the militants, is when and aid workers that are the ones left most vulnerable on the front lines. >> speaking in havana, -- said he had seen and spoken to hugo chavez.

there has been speculations of the south following the announcement of new publications put up thousands of women have marched through the capital to demand an end to violence against women. this was the largest protest since the gang rape of a 23- year-old medical student who since died. >> these women in their hundreds and hundreds stretching all the way to the back, they have braved a cold morning to come out in protest not just against the recent gang rape but also crimes against women. the gang rape has shot of the indian people. -- has shocked the indian people. this protest is organized by the government. the reason is that the government has been under tremendous pressure since this attack, seen as unresponsive, in different, and completely out of sync with the public mood.

the demand here range from stringent punishment for those behind the recent attacks, some are calling for them to be hanged, for greater punishment for convicted rapists. some are saying chemical castration. most of all, what the women want is a greater sensitivity from those in positions of power, the police, the judiciary, and from indian men. >> you are watching "bbc world news america," still to come -- a restoration project with a personal twist. why two english pensioners have made it their mission to put this folbaum back in the air. -- this bomber back in the air. police in thailand have arrested a man on suspicion of killing a british tourist during a new year's eve party. he was caught in the crossfire between local gangs. >> he was celebrating the new year on this paradise island,

but the family said they have been left devastated by his death. the 22-year-old was holidaying on a popular island when he was reportedly caught by a stray bullet during a fight between two groups at a bar. the police have arrested a man and have reportedly found the gun used. they said that he was simply a bystander. this is a former colleague of stevens. today, he paid tribute. >> he was a lovely guy. he always thought that whatever he put his hand to, he would do well. >> his family has gone to thailand and the british ambassador is expected to revisit the scene tomorrow. >> it is almost two years since the tsunami in japan caused a nuclear crisis at the plant in the book she met. the nearby town is to totally empty. -- the tsunami in japan caused a

nuclear crisis in the fukushima. there is another group that the outside world hears nothing about and they are the workers to stay at the plant and still there today. our tokyo correspondent has been to the radiation zone to meet some of them. >> in the early winter sunlight, the fields around our bucolic except when you realize that these were once rice paddies. now the weeds are as tall as a man. washing still hangs where it was left, a damaged roof tiles are where they fell when the wave struck. on the surface, it looks pretty normal, but then listen -- nothing. apart from ourselves, there is nobody in this village and there has been no be there for two years. the people that lived here fled leaving everything behind. if we spent less than an hour here, all around us invisible in

the soil, the radiation lenders. the cloud of radioactive dust spewed forth which was blown down the valley. on a hilltop above the village, this man watched it happen. this is clearly visible on the horizon. he has refused to leave or slaughtered his cattle. they are now worthless, their meat cannot be sold and the land is poisoned. >> we will never be able to build a life again on this land. no vegetables, no fruit. but i will not kill my cows. these cows are a symbol of the nuclear disaster. >> they should have been better prepared. >> other victims are invisible. this man should be a hero, but instead he hides his face from the camera.

he is 1 of the hundreds of workers who braved radiation to bring the nuclear plant under control. now many of these men are suffering depression and post- traumatic stress. they feel guilty and rejected by japanese society. >> since the disaster, i have not had a day where i felt good about myself. even when i'm out with friends, i never really feel happy. when people talk about fukushima, i feel that i am responsible. >> once a month, the farmer takes his anger and resentment to the streets of tokyo. there is and why is it that the 4 victims like him but the japanese public appears to have little sympathy or concern for the suffering of the foot issue workers. -- of the fukushima workers. >> to britain and the story of two brothers who have made it

their mission to restore a world war ii bomber to its former glory. it looks just as it did on the day that it was carrying out raids over nazi germany. they're hoping to get it back in the air very soon. behind their determination is a personal motivation. >> been an anonymous looking hangar, on an old airfield, sits a very rare thing, and old lancaster bomber in pristine condition. so pristine that the plan is to get it flying again after decades of single-minded determination. >> i sent my brother, i said, we have nothing left. >> and newspaper a d sponsored by a friend gave him the inspiration of what to do. >> i looked at it and i said,

you could not have given me this at a better time. that is how it has all the belt. >> here it is. >> here it is. >> although it is in excellent condition, it has not flown for about 40 years but this is not just a project by an independent museum to get something like this line again. this is personal. b two brothers had been elder brother that was shot down during world war ii. this is their tribute to him. a 19-year-old was 1 of more than 55,000 bomber command crew who died during cold war ii. a few years ago, his brothers visited his aircraft crash site in germany. >> i knew that i was within 6

feet of his body and all of the memories came flooding back to me. all of the memories come back. >> in getting their own lancaster airborne again is no flight of fancy. this plane is -- >> make sense of international news at bbc.com/news. >> funding for this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation of new york, stowe, vermont, and honolulu. newman's own foundation. and union bank. >> at union bank, our relationship managers work hard to understand the industry you operate in, working to nurture

new ventures and help provide capital to achieve your strategic intentions. we offer expertise and tailored solutions in a wide range of industries. what can we do for you? >> "bbc world news" was presented by kcet, los angeles.

captioning sponsored by macneil/lehrer productions >> brown: congress stepped back from the brink of financial turmoil, at least for now, after the house passed a tax plan late last night and sent it to president obama. good evening, i'm jeffrey brown. >> woodruff: and i'm judy woodruff. on the "newshour" tonight, we look at how the vote came about and sort through some of the political consequences as a result of what's in the bill and what's not. >> brown: then, new killings in pakistan, we look at the uptick in violence against aid workers and women teachers with "washington post" foreign affairs reporter pam constable. >> woodruff: paul solman takes us inside a company that turns a profit by employing an unusual workforce. >> a massachusetts manufacturing firm founded in 1932 where the median age is 74 and rosa finnegan over there, is 100.